New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-13

flcsscn the garbagcheaps dumped upon our shores.
Pauperism and disease have no rights as emsfahis'
and eliminating these would make dealing WIN
mere poverty much more manageable matter.
| The schools exist and while painfully made
ouafe In numbers demonstrate what may DE zone
in the future. Co-operation even Tor TINS has,y
people is almost equally demonstrated, as wiz oc
plain to those who read two recent puOu'aloiS
OF the American Economic Association: 20
| operation in a. Western City, by Albert SHAW,
and "Co-operation in NcwEngland, by EdWru
| w PENIS Minneapolis is the centre OF the facts
given in the first mentioned pamphlet Which ID
also the more valuable Of the two, not ia eAecu
ton but merely because IL RECORDS iloNcnon'
which has ceased 10 be eNuerimentaL Ihe niue
history includes every failure as well ms TIE nhm
| success and thus stands the best argument YET
made for the cause.
Industrial education for the child Of today /:
| cooperation tie end 10 be attained by the
worker into which the child viii growth THESE
two factors is bound w much of the problem. ihcy
will not touch many whose miserable ives are rc-
corded in these pages, but they will forever end
any chance OF another generation In Ike case
There are workers who think who are being edu
Gated by sharp conflict with circumstance ana VINO
! look beyond their own present need u The future
These men and women, crowded TO the wall ny the
present system. searching eagerly, not as mere
| Anarchists and dcstroycTs but as those who be-
lieve that something better than destruction is
possible.
1t is these workers for whom the path must be
made plain, and to whom we are most heavily re
sponsiblc
This BRINGS me TO the final roint. bound up in
dissolublv with the two already defined chance
| i'm our own ideals. Such change must come before
any school can ACCOMPLISH its best work, and TIL IL
has at least begun. neither school nor system mas
lasting power. In these months oil search In whch
women Of all ares and grades have given in Their
testimony, from the girl of fourteen earning her
two or three dollars a week in the bag-factOry or
as cash girl. to the woman stitching her remnant
of life into the garments that by and by her more
fortunate sisters viii find on the bargain counter
discover not alone their ignorance and stupidity
and grossncss and willful blindness. but behind II
an ignorance and stupidity no less dense, upon
which theirs is founded-Our own. Tic visible
wretchedncss is so appalling The need Tor instant
relief so pressing that il is small wonder that no
mower remains to look beyond the moment or to
discntangle ones self from the myriad ccnhctlng
| claims and ask the real meaning Of The demand.
Mile after mile of the fair islands once the charm
of the East River and tho great Sound beyond
are COY cred by lazar-houscs: the visible siSnS III
this great equation that fills the page OF to-uay
the problem OF human crime and disease ana
wretchedncSs comulicatinS itself with every hd-
dition. and N nearer solution than when The Guy
was but handful of houses, and poverty yet uil-
| known.
We have made attempts here and there to limit
the breeding ground. TO offer less fruitful soil 10
the SHAWN increasing with such fri ,htul rapidlty.
md dcmanding with every year fresh rcormalorlcs.
larger asylums and hospitals. more and more
machinery of alienation. Yet the conviction
STRENGTHENS that even when the tenement -holise
Of to-day is swept aside and improved homes with
decent sanitary conditions have taken its place.
that the root OF the evil is, even then. untouched
and that il lies not alone in their lives but in our
own And SO as final word say TO all women who
Give their lives to bencCcnce and plan ccascle>sly
and untirinsly for better days that no beneiiccncc
can alter, NJ work Of your hands or LONGING OF
your hearts bring the better day we desire. illl the
foundations have been laid in something less shift
| ing than the sands which we bulld. HE ms
sion OF alienation, Of protection, Of care for the
foulest and lowest of lives has had its day. II Is
| time that this mass Of effort stirred against liz
perpetual reproduction, its existence, It's ever more
| and more shameless demands. An improved home
| goes far toward making these tendencies less
strong it may even diminish the number OF actual
| transsress0rs but what home. no matter how well
kept has or Will have power TO alter the fact that
| in them thousands Of women must stlll slave Tor
pittance that borders always that lie limit
| fixed by the political economists as the vanishing
pont in the picture Of modern life? SUNLIGHT and
air may take the place Of the founess now reign
jng in the dens that many OF them know as homes.
| but viii either sun or air shorten hours or raise
wages or alter the fact that not one in thousand
| OF these women but has grounded her whole llu.
full life on "a delusOn-a dclusiOn for which are
responsibility Year by year in the story Of the Re
public labor has taken lower and lower place The
passion for getting on, latent in every drop OF
American blood, has made money the sole symbol
Of success and freedom from hand-labOr the ~ no
nym Of happiness. The mass OF ililleIa'e, uncn-
iightened emigrants pouring In steady stream
through Castle Garden have become our hands, and
rs hands, dependent on the heads Of others have
fallen into the category "a the slaves whose
possession brought infinitely more DEGRADATION Ia
owners than 10 owned. 1t Is the story Of every
civilized nation before It's fall tins exploitation Of
labor this DEGRADATION Of the worker and the
story Of hopeless decay and COLLAPSE must be oue
also if different ideals do not rise 10 fll the place
Of this golden calf to which all have bent The knee
| There is not gil old enough ~ work al all who
does not dream Of possible future m which work
viii cease and ease and luxury take its place. The
| boy content with "A trade, the man or woman ac-
cepting SIMPLE living and It's limitations content
cdly is counted fool To get money and Away
more and more money IS the one ambition. and IN
| this mad rush toward the golden fountain gentle
| virtues are trampcd under foot and men count no
armor OF honest thought worth wcarng unless 1t
be frnced with bullion. The shot@ir must have
her cotton velvet and her glass substitutes for da
mOnds. Tie lines Of caste are drawn as sharply
with her as In the ascendin- grades through which
She hopes 10 pass. Labor is curse never the bless,
Ing that it may bear when accepted as mans chief
| good, and used AS developing, not as destroying
power. Never ill men see and believe that the
fortune mado by mere sharpness and unscrupu-
lOusncss, the fruit not Of honest labor but Of pure
speculation, Is q burning disgrace TO its owner,
plague spot in civilization, shall We he able 10
vince girl woman that labor is honorable and
| better gains possible than any involved in merely
getting on. Never till this furious fl ht for sue
cess, this system OF competition which kills all re-
ard for the ind gidual. demanding only machine
| capable Of 80 much net prOduct-nevcr till these
and all methods Of like nature have ceased to
| have place or right 10 existence. count
| selves civilized or hope TO better the conditions
| that now battle US. No church. 40 mission, no i'm
proved home, no guild or any other form Of Mitl-
satiOn means anything Till the whole system Of
! thought is reconstructed and we come 10 some
sense of what the eternal verites really are.
II is easy for woman 10 be kind and tender and
patient and lOng-suifeTing, but the women who can
he Just 10 themselves as well az ~ others wc can
| count on fingers. Yet justice is the one de
mand in this life Of TO-DAY. and not one Of US who